THE POWER OF CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

 And only way to achieve this goal is to master CRM based customer segmentation – identify groups with similar characteristics and then hit them with the most relevant marketing message.

Basic CRM segmentation:

Identify attributes and events. Attributes would include things like gender, location, language, age, email address, device type, operating system, products used etc. And events would include things like last used site, last product purchased, last article read etc. You can define a combination of attributes and events to segment your customers. For instance, you can zero down to females in their 30s who have purchased a phone recently. Sometimes you won’t find a criteria pre-defined and you have to use a pseudo criteria.

Advanced CRM segmentation:

Score your leads

All leads are not created equal. You can channelise your energies and grab the low-hanging fruits first. A good CRM can map certain consumer actions to their probability of buying your product and give them scores. For instance, any consumer asking for a quotation or checking out your pricing page on website, is contemplating a purchase. The CRM will score him as a high conversion lead. Another example can be using CRM to highlight every consumer who crosses a certain value in sales and to label him as a Category A customer. You can customise the scoring model based on your business sales cycle. The scoring can happen in real-time. As soon as consumer fits the criteria defined in your model, his status will change.

Tag your leads 

As you interact more with your customers through offline channels, you gain deeper understanding into who they are and what they need. A good CRM will let you tag your leads for future use. So, you can tag your lead with the product line he is using and then in future cross sell similar products. Tagging helps you segment customers based on criteria not already defined in your CRM fields. It brings flexibility.

Trigger timely responses 

As a business owner, you will know the typical sales funnel your consumer goes through. It is usually – awareness ( saw your email ), interest ( agreed to try a sample ), desire ( checked your website for more information ), action (bought your product). If this cycle lasts 30 days in a usual case, you can squeeze it to may be 15 days by pushing the right message at the right time. Your CRM will know exactly which stage the consumer is at and will trigger the right action ( email / SMS or other marketing communication pre-loaded in the software ). Right messaging at the right timing can reduce the sales cycle.

A Common Pitfall to Avoid:

Do not over segment. If you use too many attributes or events, you will end up creating plenty of segments and each one may not be worth your while. Stick to a rule of three. If you can define a segment with 3 criterias you will have a group broad enough to build specialised marketing strategy for.

A Tip worth a Million Bucks:

Do not stop at segmentation. Use multiple actions as well as messaging and test them. Analyse using advanced A/B testing to determine which of the two variables are working better. For example, does it make sense to give an bundled offer or is it more advantageous to give a discount. You can also test using multivariate testing to find the best combination of variables.

Customers have successfully used the above tools in Microsoft Dynamics CRM , Salesforce & Oracle cloud to effectively rewards the loyal lot and revive the lapsed ones. Customer segmentation with CRM is a powerful marketing strategy that, if applied correctly and sacredly, can change the course of business.